I noticed that there isn't an actual area to post OSX topics, so I figured here was as good as any. Does anyone on here own and use a Mac? I switched away from PC's altogether about 3 or 4 months ago, bought a Macbook and attempted to switch over totally. I was fairly happy with it for a while but got annoyed with how controlling the OS was, and how limited your rights were, your abilities to be an actual administrator. I also got a very good offer on my laptop which actually allowed me to make money off the deal and so I sold it and bought a PC with Vista on it. I don't think I will ever go back to Mac as my only computer but I would consider buying one as a secondary machine sometime in the future.

I'm just curious what people think of Mac, OSX, whatever, and if anyone runs it as one of their main machines.

Matt

Chad Johnson

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September 27, 2008 - 4:08 pm

LoL, I brought this up to Dave at one point that there wasn't a Mac forum, and he shot me down. (well, we agreed to shoot it down, but whatever).

We have Macs at work (yes, very diverse, we have Mac, Linux, and Windows). I don't like them, myself, because they don't work like Windows, or even Linux.

But overall, there's nothing wrong with them. They've made great strides in making the Mac World seamless so if you are going from one Mac to another you don't have to worry about a configuration being totally different than you are used to.

I also have an Apple II and a G3 in my garage, but they haven't been booted up in years. They probably don't even work anymore. But they're there.

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September 27, 2008 - 8:55 pm

The thing that bothered me so much about Mac though was that it was so controlling. I can't remember all the details but it was like computing for dummies (absolutely no offense meant in any way to anyone). I found that things were so simplistic on it. I didn't like the fact that files were hidden and you couldn't view them at all, I hated the fact that I couldn't properly delete things from a flash drive, it would erase the entry but would keep hogging the space. I finally noticed it when my 2GB flash drive had one document on it (just my resume) and when I tried to put on another file, it said it was full. I had to reformat the flash drive in order to clear the junk off it! It's just things like that, that bothered me. I also got frustrated with the way that software worked on it. I installed a program (Gmail Notifier) and uninstalled it in the way that it said to online, and all it did was delete some of the entries for the program. It kept checking my email all the time though and wasn't totally off my computer. This wouldn't be a huge problem in Windows because there are programs like CCleaner that help get rid of the other parts of the program that don't want to leave, but nothing worked like that in Mac.

All that said, the interface is second to none! There are some big advantages to Mac like Front Row which kills Media Center, and the little features like Preview, but generally, I like the control that I have in Windows.

Matt

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September 27, 2008 - 9:34 pm

Apple is all about the experience. This is why they lock down everything they produce. They want to control the experience and make it something you walk away from and say "wow".

And, truth be told, it is a great experience. But when I want to do something with my computer, I look to Linux and sometimes even Windows.

--zig

David Hartsock

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September 28, 2008 - 3:16 am

What's an OSX?

Most people would find the forum through the site and/or newsletter, which is targeted mostly toward Windows.
I just thought it was going away from the theme of the site, that's all.

If a Mac forum is wanted/needed I don't have a problem with putting one up!

SEGMAT

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September 28, 2008 - 9:43 am

First of all, you're right Dave, I should have specified what I meant by OSX because some might not know that it means. OSX is the operating system that runs on Apple computers, started in 1999 to take over from their Mac OS line of operating systems. It's based on Unix, the same thing that's the base for Linux, but it differs from Linux in that it's generally thought to be more user friendly and it's also closed source (you need to pay for it) rather than open source (totally free).

As for needing a Mac forum, I don't think we'll need one until General Topics gets filled with lots of Mac posts. I just figured I'd put one in here to see what people thought of Mac generally, not to ask lots of questions or anything.

Matt

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September 28, 2008 - 12:58 pm

OS X is BSD based, which is unix-like, but also linux-like. And no, it is not Open source.